Flask support



June 13, 1961 F. J. MESIC 2,988,333

FLASK SUPPORT Filed June 15, 1959 United States Patent O 2,988,333 FLASK SUPPORT Frank J. lvlesic, 38 E. Charlotte Ave., Ecorse 29, Mich. Filed June 15, 1959, Ser. No. 820,222 2 Claims. (Cl. 257-1) This invention relates to a support for a flask having a round bottom portion and is adapted for use in labo'ratories and the like.

An object is to provide a flask support of the character specificed which is designed to support flasks of different sizes and which is also designed to receive and support test tubes of different sizes.

An object is the provision of such a flask support which is formed of suitable relatively inert material which is easily cleaned and designed to be easily kept in a sanitary condition and which is impervious to moisture so that it may be used as a suppo'rt disposed within a cooling liquid.

Another object is the provision of a flask support as specified which may be formed of natural rubber, wood, synthetic rubber, or other suitable plastic material and which is in the form of a planar base opposite faces of which are so shaped as to furnish annular supporting surfaces of different sizes to support flasks of different sizes.

Another object is the provision of a flask support as hereinabove specified wherein the base is provided with an annular opening extending therethrough, which opening embodies a minimum diameter portion disposed intermediate and spaced between the two opposite faces of the base. This opening is so formed that it includes a flask-supporting face associated with each flat face of the base. The flask'supporting face of the opening extends on an outward slope from the minimum diameter portion of the opening toward the face of the base and is adapted to so support a flask as to provide an air space between the surface of the flask and the face of the sloping surface at intervals throughout the width of the sloping face.

Another object is the provision of a flask support as specified hereinabove wherein each sloping face of the opening is provided with a plurality of grooves or channels extending diametrically thereacross providing fluid communicating passageways extending from the minimum diameter portion of the opening underneath the flask to the outer face of the base spaced from the flask.

The support also includes cavities adapted to removably receive test tubes arranged circumferentially about the circumference of each opening as it emerges upon the face of the base.

Other objects, advantages, and meritorious features will more fully appear from the following dscription, claims, and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of one planar face of the base of a structure embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the opposite planar face of the base of the structure shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1.

The base of the flask support is indicated as 10. It may be formed of rubber or any other suitable material which is relatively impervious to moisture and relatively inert and easily cleaned and which also preferably provides a cushion support for a flask and also furnishes some frictional support to maintain the flask at positions of angular adjustment with respect to the base. The base has a thickness which permits an opening extending therethrough to be chamfered or sloped from an intermediate line toward each of the planar faces of the base as shown particularly in FIG. 3.

In FIG. 3 the opening itself is shown as having a minimum diameter portion 12 which is disposed intermediate See the upper face 14 and the lower face 16 of the base. This opening is shown as sloping as at 18 from this one diameter portion 12 toward the face 16. This opening is also shown as sloping from the minimum diameter portion 12 toward the face 14.

The sloping surface which extends toward the face 16 is an annular planar surface. It might be formed on a radius but it is here shown as on a straight angle. The slo'ping surface which extends toward the face 14 comprises two relatively angularly disposed faces 20 and 22. It will be seen that the sloping surf-ace which extends toward the face 14 of the base has a diameter at the face 14 substantially greater than the diameter of the sloping surface 18 which extends to the face 16 of the base. It is apparent, therefore, that one side of the base is adapted to support a relatively large flask such as 24 while the other side of the base would support a flask of much smaller diameter.

It will be noted that, due to the relatively circular contour of the flask and the fact that the sloping face of the opening defined by the surfaces 20 and 22 are shaped as shown, when a flask having a round bottom portion is seated therein there will be spaces between the round bottom portion of the flask and the supporting surfaces of the base. This will be true even of the sloping face 18 because it is on a straight line while the surface of the flask will be on a radius.

Each face of the base is provided with a series of test tube receiving openings encircling the flask-receiving openings. The test tube receiving openings 26 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, are stepped inwardly from the test tube receiving openings 28, shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. The test tube receiving openings, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, are of different sizes so as to receive and support test tubes of different sizes.

Each outwardly sloping face of the annular opening through the 'base is provided with a series of channels or grooves. The channels or grooves which extend across the face 14 and across the sloping faces 20 and 22 are indicated as 30. The channels or grooves which extend across the face 16 and across the sloping face 18 are indicated as 32. It will be seen that these channels afford fluid communicating passageways from each face 14 or 16 into which they open to the interior of the opening below the flask as shown in FIG. 3.

The flask 24 shown supported upon the base in FIG. 3 isbroken away but such a flask is ordinarily provided with an upstanding neck portion, a portion of which is indicated at 23. Such flask may be tilted angularly within the support and will be frictionally supported at such angular position. The flask which would be supported from the opposite face of the base would be a flask of substantially smaller diameter. It would be similarly supported and could be similarly tilted as is common in laboratory work. In FIG. 3 a test tube is shown in dotted outline.

If a chemical composition were disposed within a flask such as 24 shown in FIG. 3, the flask support carrying the flask might be mounted within a vessel containing a coolant liquid which would extend up along the outside of the flask. In order to prevent the liquid immediately underneath the bottom of the flask and within the portion formed by the sloping wall 18 of the opening through the base of the support from heating up undesirably, the channels 30 and 32 are provided in such number as may be desired, Four such channels are here shown. The coolant liquid, as it heats up, can move up through the channels 30 from below the flask mounted within the support. Cool liquid may move inwardly through the channels 32 to the space below the flask and the flask thereby cooled.

It is obvious that the same result would be achieved if the position of the flask support or base were reversed aesases and another flask supported upon the sloping wall 18. It is also apparent that circulation underneath the flask as it is supported upon the base is established within the channels 30 and 32 by virtue of the fact that the flask doesnot seat snugly throughout the entire area of the oppositely sloping faces but is spaced from the bottoms of the channels.

If instead of the flask support being disposed within a vessel containing cool water, the flask support carrying a flask were disposed within a sink underneath a water tap, cooling liquid might be flowed from the tap over the outer surface of the flask. Such cooling water would flow down over the surface of the flask, and over the sloping faces, 18-or 22 as the case might be, and through the channels 30 or 32, thereby maintaining the temperature of the contents of the flask so as to satisfactorily complete the chemical reaction within the flask.

What I claim is:

1. A round bottom flask support in the form of a planew base having an annular opening extending therethrough from one flat face through the opposite flat face, said annular opening extending from a minimum diameter spaced between said two flat faces and sloping outwardly from said minimum diameter portion toward each flat faceand toward the perimeter thereof, said annular opening having a diameter at one flat face greater than the diameter at the other flat face whereby flasks of different sizes may be seated within opposite ends of the opening, said flask support characterized in that the sloping face of said annular opening as it extends away from the minimum 30 diameter portion of the opening toward one flat face of the base is itself provided with a plurality of outwardly radially extending channels extending completely across said sloping face providing communication at the inner ends of said channels with the space underneath the flask and at the outer ends of said channels with the space surrounding the flask, and other channels extending from the space underneath the flask across the opposite face of the base.

2. A round bottom flask support in the form of a planar base having an annular opening extending therethrough from one flat face through the opposite flat face, said annular opening extending from a minimum diameter portion spaced intermediate between said two flat faces and sloping outwardly from said minimum diameter portion toward each flat face and toward the perimeter thereof, said annular opening having a diameter at one flat face greater than the diameter of the other flat face whereby flasks of dilferent sizes may be seated within opposite ends of the opening upon the sloping faces of said opening, each said outwardly sloping face of the opening that extends from the minimum diameter portion thereof toward a flat face being provided with a plurality of generally radially extending channels extending into and generally radially across said sloping face from the minimum: diameter portion of the opening to and across each flat face of the base.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

